Two copyright-related items:

--A federal judge has granted preliminary approval--a procedural step-- of Google's revised settlement agreement with the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers. U.S. District Judge Denny Chin also scheduled a hearing for Feb. 18, when he will presumably make his final judgement.

The Justice Department, which raised a number of concerns with the first version of the $125 million settlement, has until Feb. 4 to weigh in. There have already been rumblings from critics of the settlement who say it does not go far enough to ensure that Google will not end up controling rights to a significant number of books.

--Dan Glickman, CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America, sent a letter (PDF) to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and ranking member Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), urging them to support the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, which would help crack down on copyright infringement. Some concerns have been raised that the agreement could result in Internet filtering.

Glickman also calls complaints from some groups that the agreement has been drafted behind closed doors "a distraction." And he urges the U.S. government to guide the process "so that we can engage in a meaningful dialogue on substance rather than procedural matters."

The letter was also sent to the leaders of the Senate Finance, House Judiciary, House Ways & Means and House Energy & Commerce committees.

On a related note, the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday confirmed Victoria Espinel to be the country's first Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator. If confirmed by the full Senate, she's expected to play a key role in the completion of the ACTA agreement. 

--Information Week reports that Rep. Edolphus Towns (D-NY) has introduced a bill that would ban peer-to-peer file sharing programs, such as BitTorrent and Limewire, on government computers and networks. It would require the Office of Management and Business to set policies on homes use by employees to telecommute or access federal networks remotely.

Just as lawmakers and agency officials are starting to adopt Twitter as a way to reach citizens, Web measurement firms show traffic to the site is starting to slip.

Nielsen reports Twitter traffic declined about 28 percent from September to October. As eMarketer writes in an article today, the decrease in visitors could mean either falling interest in Twitter or simply a migration to other platforms, such as third-party applications and mobile phone access.

A decline in traffic to Twitter's site doesn't necessarily mean people aren't reading and posting tweets. In August, Crowd Science found 43 percent of Twitter users accessed Twitter through third-party applications such as TweetDeck, and 19 percent said they update Twitter via text messages.

So fret not, political tweeters. Your messages (probably) aren't falling on deaf ears.

Check out The Hill's Twitter Room for the latest from congressional tweeters.

Google has removed a controversial image of First Lady Michelle Obama from its Google Image Search results page, citing harmful malware as the reason for the action. 

The website Search Engine Roundtable points out that at the time of its removal, the photo was the number one search result in a Google Image Search for "Michelle Obama." 

The photo is a distorted version of Obama's face designed to accentuate racial characteristics, and it's easy to see why many people might find it offensive. 

But that fact wasn't mentioned by Google’s Matt Cutts, who said in a post on the Search Engine Roundtable Thursday that the site hosting the Obama photo was violating Google’s guidelines for safe websites. 

“… that page did violate our webmaster guidelines because it was serving malware to users, which violates the quality guideline that says ‘Don’t create pages with malicious behavior, such as phishing or installing viruses, trojans, or other badware.’ I believe that the Images team did a general anti-malware sweep.”

The same sweep was not performed on the main Google search page, writes searchengine.com. 

"Sure enough, a search for the site in Google Images produces no results. But the malware sweep apparently didn’t reach the main web search index...the site itself is still listed in Google.com search results with no malware warning." 

Cross-posted on Washington Scene

The House Democratic Caucus launched a new Web site designed to highlight what members are doing, saying and voting on today.

The site-- Dems.gov-- will feature specific members--this week it's John Dingell (D-Mich.), the longest-serving member in the House. It summarizes major legislation passed by Democrats and upcoming bills. And it has a Twitter-like feed of quotes from members on topics and pieces of legislation (as shown).

Here's a story I wrote earlier this week about what House Republicans have been up to on the Web.

“Now, anyone with access to the Internet can log on to our new site and get an inside perspective on the legislation House Democrats are working to pass,” said Caucus Chairman Rep. John B. Larson (Conn.).

Jon Potter, who has been executive director of the Digital Media Association (DiMA) for the past 11 years, is announcing today that he is leaving his post.

Potter has handled DiMA's public policy activities, advocating for members including MySpace Music, RealNetworks, YouTube, Apple and MTV Networks.

He's worked in areas of interest to the entertainment industry, most notably copyright, digital rights management and music royalties. He most recently lobbied to reduce the royalty fees Web radio services were required to pay.

Potter said he does not yet know where he will end up, but said he will likely stay in the technology or entertainment fields. His phone has been ringing, he said.  DiMA's board will begin a formal search for his replacement.

"I can't imaging leaving it entirely--there's still a lot of work to be done," he said.

He said companies such as Napster were ahead of their time and licensing models and he's enjoyed watching applications created by Rhapsody, iTunes and Pandora "capture enormous consumer attention," has been rewarding.

"It's been a set of long battles and challenging issues and negotiations and royalty fights," he said. "But it's been gratifying to see companies turn their ideas into businesses."

House lawmakers stepped up their questioning of companies that collect and store information about consumers both on the Internet and in real life.

In a hearing today, lawmakers interested in drafting legislation that would place restrictions on how Internet and marketing firms collect consumer information, asked Wal-Mart, WPP and privacy advocates detailed questions about how personal information is gathered and used. Reps. Rick Boucher (D-Va.), Bobby Rush (D-Ill.) and Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.) have been considering a bill, but a draft will most likely not be released until early next year. (See interview with Rush.)

The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittees on Comerce, Trade, and Commerce Protection and Comunications, Technology, and the Internet held a joint hearing on the topic--although it was poorly attended by members.

"We've moved from an era of privacy keepers to one of privacy peepers and data-mining weepers who want to turn our information into products," said Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.).  "The product is our records, our privacy, our family's history. We wouldn't let the government do this, so we have to protect against companies that want to do this."

"It is understandable that most Americans simply do not trust that their personal information is properly protected," said Rep. Doris Matsui (D-Calif.).

Jennifer Barrett, an executive with Acxiom, a marketing company, said the firm could collect 1,500 possible data points about individual consumers, such as age, hobbies, address, occupation and recent purchases. Acxiom typically maintains 20-40 data points on the average person. Acxiom receives that information from public records, surveys consumers fill out voluntarily (such as warranty cards) and information from other companies.

In response to questions from Rep. Mike Doyle (D-Penn.), Barrett said consumers can see what data has been stored about them and can change or delete information used for marketing purposes. But consumers cannot find out who else has bought their data from Axciom.

Privacy advocates Chris Hoofnagle of UC Berkeley Law and Pamela Dixon of World Privacy Forum pointed to databases that store personally identifiable information about consumers--such as diseases and other afflictions--without consumers' knowledge.

Boucher wanted to know if privacy legislation, if passed, should apply to both online and offline marketing practices.

Zoe Strickland, Wal-Mart's chief privacy officer, said yes, since most services are offered both on and off the Internet. Hoofnagle agreed that a "broader approach" would be useful, and suggested imposing time limits for storing personal information.

One year ago, President Barack Obama’s election win transformed political campaigns by showing the power of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and text messages.

Now Republicans are charging ahead with their own social media agendas, which are becoming more prominent in state elections and day-to-day outreach to constituents.

House Republicans are particularly active. They started the New Media Caucus last year, although it didn’t launch a website until August. Since then, members have been holding one or two briefings a month to teach staffers about new tools. Apple, YouTube and U-Stream, a live video-streaming service, have been on hand to show off the technology.

Rep. Bob Latta (R-Ohio) is a founding member of the New Media Caucus. His office uses Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and YouTube to share information about issues and votes. He also uses a tool called Amplify, which shows what he is reading, and social network Utterli. Constituents can sign up for text-message alerts from his office, and he webcasts townhall meetings on BlogTV.com.

“He saw a void in our own offices’ communication after the Obama campaign … and we’ve been running with it ever since,” said Ryan Walker, Latta’s chief of staff. “It’s been easier than I thought to get people on board.”

Reps. Buck McKeon (R-Calif.), Rob Wittman (R-Va.) and John Culberson (R-Texas) helped launch the New Media Caucus and organized a summer visit to Silicon Valley. House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) has a YouTube channel and uploads his podcasts to iTunes.

“Social media platforms like YouTube, Facebook and Twitter have become an indispensable component of House Republicans’ efforts to communicate our better solutions to the American people,” Boehner said. “The Web allows us to not only deliver a clear, unfiltered message directly to the public, but also serves as an open forum where we can receive feedback from our constituents.”

Boehner, who took his own trip to Silicon Valley, said his blog — gopleader.gov/blog — received thousands of comments and questions about healthcare alone last week. (...)

Rep. Anna Eshoo's (D-Calif.) bill that would require broadcasters to turn down the volume of TV commercials easily passed the full Commerce Committee today. It now heads to the House floor.

Under the bill, the FCC would come up with recommended volume standards. Broadcasters would then have a year to acquire the equipment they need to bring loud commercials inline with those standards.

More information can be found in this previous story.

The Senate Judiciary Committee this morning confirmed Victoria Espinel to be Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator in the White House. Next up, she'll appear before the full Senate

She was first nominated by President Obama in late September. Congress created the Copyright Czar position in 2008 to target the rise in pirated and counterfeited movies, music and software.

If confirmed, which is expected, she'll also play a key role in the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, which several countries, including the U.S., are in the midst of negotiating. In 2005, Espinel was the top trade negotiator for intellectual property at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. Here's some background from Wired.